A trip to San Antonio was supposed to be the cure for the New Orleans Pelicans’ road woes.
After all, the Pelicans had won five straight games in the arena now called the Frost Bank Center.
But for the first time since December 2021, the Pelicans lost a road game to the Spurs.
This one, a 121-116 setback after a gritty fourth quarter comeback.
The Pelicans trailed 114-103 with 5:02 left. They then outscored the Spurs 13-0 to take a 116-114 lead.
The Pels held the Spurs scoreless from the 5:02 mark of the fourth quarter until the 36.9 second mark when Spurs' phenom Victor Wembanyama drained a 3-pointer to put San Antonio up for good. The Pels went scoreless the last minute of the game.
Trey Murphy had a chance to tie it late, but his 3-pointer with 10 seconds left didn’t go down.
It was the 12th straight road loss for the Pelicans (5-20). Their only road win away from the Smoothie King Center came against Portland in the second game of the season.
“He’s a fantastic player and someone you have to be aware of at all times when he’s on the floor,” Pelicans coach Willie Green said of Wembanyama before the game.
The loss came a day after the Pelicans lost one of their most important players. Brandon Ingram suffered what the team called a high-grade low left ankle sprain in Saturday night’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Ingram will be out indefinitely.
“We all feel for him, for sure,” Green said.
Ingram’s absence led to Green having to use his 17th different starting lineup this season.
The starting five Sunday consisted of Dejounte Murray, CJ McCollum, Herb Jones, Murphy and rookie Yves Missi.
Murphy replaces Ingram in the starting lineup and led the Pelicans with 25 points.
"It takes time," Green said. "Trey, CJ and Dejounte haven’t played a lot of games together. It takes time to get back into a rhythm when you’ve missed several week. It’s good to see him hit some shots, good to see him play how we’re used to seeing Trey play. He’ll continue to get better and obviously we are going to need big minutes from him."
Murphy was one of six Pelicans in double figures. CJ McCollum scored 19. Missi recorded his sixth double double (18 points, 14 rebounds).
The Pelicans were also without Javonte Green, who was ruled out before the game with left ankle soreness.
“Hopefully we can get some consistency with our lineups and guys being available,” Green said. “But the biggest thing is coming out with the mindset to attack from start to finish and being able to sustain it for more of a 48-minute game. We are doing it for a half or doing it for 2 ½ quarters. It takes more than that against any team in the NBA. That’s the goal for us to put together a complete game.”
The Pelicans get three days off before hosting the Sacramento Kings on Thursday.